July 19, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series about the founders of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and their descendants, focusing on Walter Weston Folger. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History
The vast collections of the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) contain a plethora of old photographs and relics which link to the ancestral lines of Desire (Howland) Gorham, daughter of Mayflower passengers John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, who married John Gorham.
To recap: My first story covered the Howland-Gorham-Paddock-Hussey line. Read: Photo Album: Howland and Gorham Descendants (part 1).
The subject covered in today’s story, Walter Weston Folger (1903-1993), does not have any family albums housed at the NHA – but there are several manuscripts, maps, and records of his ancestors, who include Nantucket settlers Folger, Bunker, Severance, Coffin, Morrill, Gardner, Hussey, and more.
Many of those ancestors are listed on the two early monuments dedicated to the island’s founders. Below is a photo of the monument to the male lines. The monument to the female lines can be viewed here: Scions of Nantucket Founders (part 2).
Howland-Gorham-Hussey-Worth-Starbuck-Folger Line
Here is the lineage of Walter Weston Folger, former deputy governor, historian, and genealogist of the Tennessee Society of Mayflower Descendants:
- John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley
- Desire Howland and Captain John Gorham
- Shubael Gorham and Puella Hussey
- Lydia Gorham and Joseph Worth
- Joseph Worth and Judith Starbuck
- Matilda Worth and Latham Folger (Folger Family Papers NHA)
- Reuben Washington Folger and Lydia Wilson
- Alfred Moore Folger and Mary “Polly” Pegram
- Orlando Cyrus Folger and Lucy Camilla Breazeale
- Walter Newton Folger and Margaret Isabelle Hill, daughter of Tandy Walker and Delilah Ann “Dillie” (Hurt) Hill
- Walter Weston Folger married Glennie Corpening Anthony (1903–1987), daughter of George Corpening “Cope” and Minnie Matilda (Gibbs) Anthony, and left descendants
Here is a photo of Walter Weston Folger and his fellow Mayflower Society officers from 1963.
The photo caption reads:
The Tennessee Society of Mayflower Descendants met yesterday for an annual luncheon meeting held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kinchen Exum on Lookout Mountain. Officers were elected for a 3-year term. Pictured, left to right, are: Mrs. Ashley Jewell of Lookout Mountain, treasurer; Mrs. Arthur H. Moser of Knoxville, secretary; Walter Weston Folger of Chattanooga, deputy governor general and historian; Mrs. Fleming Martin of Memphis, assistant deputy governor general and deputy governor; Mr. Exum, re-elected governor of the Tennessee Society of Mayflower Descendants; Col. William B. Foster of Cleveland, Tenn., of Mayflower ancestry and special guest at the meeting; and Mrs. J. M. Krechniak of Ozone, Tenn., who attended her first meeting of the society as a member. Some 16 members were present; Mrs. Sam Miles Jr., Mrs. John Grant Sr., and Mrs. J. H. McCall, all of Lookout Mountain, were voted into membership.
Here is Walter again with a feature photo from 1971.
The photo caption reads:
Genealogist Looks at Historical Records – Walter Weston Folger, historian of the Tennessee Society of Mayflower Descendants and genealogist, examines records that run back “until the mind of man goeth not to the contrary.” One of his ancestors was the only passenger on “The Mayflower” to fall overboard when it was crossing in 1620, but, luckily, [John] Howland was rescued.
Read all about this drama: Mayflower Descendants: “Who’s Who” Part 31 (P. 2).
Walter told the press his interest in genealogy really perked up when he met a kinfolk in line for a Shrine ceremonial at Wrightsville, North Carolina, on 30 September 1930. Walter is a North Carolina Folger, and the other fellow was from a South Carolina Folger branch, but they both were offshoots of the “Nantucket New England Folgers.”
Here is a snippet from the newsclip.
This snippet reports:
The “New England Folgers” include 10 or 12 families in Nantucket, Mass., or, at least, the families had their beginnings there soon after 1630, the date usually given to what is called the “great migration” from England. Most of these family trees go back for 12 or more generations, and since the beginnings in America the families have “multiplied and replenished the earth.”
The next part mentions Walter’s collection of manuscripts and records. I tracked some of his research material, which includes “Family records, Bible records, letters, items – Barton, Breazeale, Field, Folger, Hill, Hurt, Pegram, Anthony, Gibbs.” The material is available through FamilySearch.org.
When he was a member of the NHA, Walter published “The Coffin Family,” and added to the NHA collection the following:
- “A letter to Jethro Starbuck from William Gayer’s widow, Elisabeth, written from London January 5, 1712-1713.”
- “The European origin of the de Gorram/de Gorham family.”
- “Geneology of Hussey-Wood family 1569-1632.”
Walter’s great grandfather, Dr. Alfred Moore Folger (1811-1880), was at one time a resident of Stokes County, North Carolina. His grave is located at West View Cemetery, Easley, Pickens County, South Carolina. Dr. Folger is buried there with his wife and children.
Dr. Folger wrote a health care guide for the use of the public at a time when most medical books were aimed at professionals. The book was published in 1845 by Spartanburg, South Carolina, publisher Z. D. Cottrell.
A copy of the rare book sold at auction for $1,600 in September 2018.
Serving with the U.S. Army as a physician in the late 1830s, Dr. Folger accompanied the Cherokees on their forced relocation (the “Trail of Tears”) to what is now Oklahoma. That may be another story to follow up on!
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Note on the header image: flag of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Credit: NuclearVacuum; Wikimedia Commons.
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